


It's A Pretty Good Life

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: The Only One I Ever Trusted [2]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: A little angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Family, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Len Thinks Too Hard, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-23
Updated: 2016-11-23
Packaged: 2018-09-01 16:15:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8630713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: A Snart-Rory family Thanksgiving, old-school style (set before either “The Flash” or “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow” TV series.)





	

Blueprints were spread over the arm of the couch, Lisa’s head was on his lap, and George Bailey was standing on a snow-covered bridge screaming at the heavens on the TV screen. As far as Thanksgivings went, it easily ranked in the top 3 of Len’s life.

“Thank you for stealing me the VCR, Len,” Lisa said, eyes still on the screen as she poked his leg. “They don’t show usually show this on TV until closer to Christmas.”

“Consider it a thank you for not loving ‘Rudolph.” Len looked down at his 11-year-old sister, smoothing his free hand over her hair. He was bracing himself for the day when she considered herself too old to snuggle up to him like this, reminding himself over and over again that he was going to need to handle it like a fucking adult. “Though I do wonder why ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is your favorite. If you think about it too long, it’s pretty damn depressing.”

She shifted enough to look up at him. “That’s why I like it.” She stretched a little, body betraying none of the tell-tale stiffness that came with suspicious bruises. It looked like he’d finally scared the old man into keeping his hands to himself. “It admits that people can be really shitty to each other, and sometimes life isn’t fair, but if you have people who love you things work out okay.” She kissed the palm of his hand, then turned back to the screen. “So things are gonna work out okay for me.”

Len’s chest clenched at the matter-of-factness in his sister’s voice, throat tightening enough that he didn’t quite dare trust his own. He turned back to the blueprints, pretending to focus on them while he fought back the wave of emotion. He was shit at being a parent, and probably shit at being a brother, but he tried like hell to give her everything she wasn’t getting from anywhere else.

The idea he might be managing it, even a little, was more than he dared hope for.

He'd just about managed to collect himself when Lisa spoke again, her voice more fragile than it had been. "You'd be sad if I'd never been born, right?"

The thought was horrifying enough that Len's brain refused to contemplate it. His gut, though, already knew the answer.

He turned back to his little sister, whose eyes were still fixed on the screen in front of her. The fact that she wasn't looking up at him with the puppy-dog eyes she'd already mastered made it clear how serious the question was.

The truth, then.

He let out a breath, his hand still resting against her hair. "If you hadn't been born," he said quietly. "I'd be a monster."

That made her jerk her head around to look up at him, clearly ready to argue, but when she met his eyes her expression immediately softened. She watched him without saying anything, blinking back the sudden wetness in her eyes, then shifted around to wrap her arms around him in an awkward but heartfelt hug. Len, chest clenching again, tightened his arm around her to return the hug.

They separated when they heard the sound of the garage door opening. Len tensed for a second, one hand wrapped around the gun he'd tucked under the blueprints, then relaxed when the door lifted to reveal Mick holding a bag. "Got the sandwiches." He headed over to the couch, lifting Lisa's legs and sitting down before dropping them back into his lap and setting the bag on top of them. "Turkey, as ordered."

He pulled the sandwiches out of the bag, surprising Len. "Those aren't gas station sandwiches."

Mick shook his head as he handed them out. "The ones we had last year were shit. I broke into a deli that was closed for the day and made these myself."

Lisa unwrapped hers, still laying down, then lifted the corner of the bread and gave a delighted squeal. "You put cranberry sauce on it!"

"Course I did," Mick said, pretending not to smile when Lisa sprang upward and threw her arms around him. It shifted to a smirk when he handed Len his sandwich. “Got to support the one Snart with taste.”

Len’s eyebrow lift was automatic. “No one who likes ‘Rudolph’ as much as you do gets to talk to me about taste. That dentist elf deserves to be punched.”

“I like him.” Mick settled back against the couch, taking a bite of his sandwich as Lisa went back to sprawling across both of them. “He’s a little guy with big dreams.”

“Yes. Annoying dreams.” Len turned back to the TV screen as he took a bite of his own sandwich, surprisingly delicious and thankfully free of cranberry sauce. On the screen, George Bailey was still reeling from the discovery of the blighted Bedford Falls, dark and cynical in a world where George hadn’t been there to save it.

Against his will, his gaze slid back over to Mick. He’d be dead if Mick hadn’t been there to save him that day in juvie, and even if he’d somehow survived.... Len’s mind spun ahead, imagining the world with an empty space where Mick was supposed to be. A world where Lisa was the only person he could trust, a world where he could never be quite sure someone would be there to watch his back. Where no one would roll their eyes when he over-explained a job, understand him well enough to get when he was joking and when he was serious, or do something just to make Lisa smile. A world where the one person who could truly see him for everything he was, yet still stuck with him anyway, didn’t exist anymore.

Len’s gut twisted hard, the ice in his stomach painful rather than bracing. There was more than one way to end up a monster.

Mick, thankfully, didn’t notice any of this. “You can’t tell me you didn’t want to go to the Island of Misfit Toys when you were a kid.”

Len, grateful for the distraction, shoved his thoughts aside. “Of course not.” He stretched out the words, the way gangsters did in old movies. “I had taste even as a child.”

“Sure you did.” Mick raised an eyebrow at him. “Then why do I see the case for it over there, under ‘It’s a Wonderful Life?’”

Because he’d known Mick would want to watch it, though he’d never admit that out loud. “I blame Lisa somehow.”

From his lap, Lisa just smiled and took a bite of her sandwich.

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my new original fiction on my [blog](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


End file.
